22 Palestinian women held in Israeli jails

International Women's Day | 22 Palestinian women held in
Israeli jails

On the International Women's Day,
Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) revealed that 22
Palestinian female detainees are currently held in Israeli
jails including 17 detained in Hasharon prison.

Five
female detainees were recently detained including Shereen
Issawi, held in Maskoubiya detention centre, Maisoon Sweiti
and the human rights activist Nermin Salem, in addition to
Ahlem Issa, held in Ashkelon detention centre and Rim
Hamarsheh who is detained in Salem investigation
centre.

Lena Jarboni, 34, from Buttof village inside
Palestine 1948, is the longest serving Palestinian female
prisoner inside Israeli jails. She was arrested in 2002 and
sentenced to 17 years. She spent 11 years behind Israeli
bars. The youngest female detainee held in Israeli jails is
the 18 years old Maram Hassouna.

Six Palestinian female
detainees suffer from different diseases including high
blood pressure, diabetes, inflammation, migraine, and
Rheumatism.

During their imprisonment, two Palestinian
female detainees were engaged to another two male detainees
whilst in Israeli jails, including Mona Ka'adan who was
arrested in November 2012 and engaged to Ibrahim Aghbarieh,
sentenced to 3 life-terms in prison plus 10 years and Donia
Waqed who is arrested in May 2013 and engaged to Mohammed
Waqed, who is in turn sentenced to 29 years.

Two female
detainees are from occupied Jerusalem including Shereen
Issawi and Intissar Sayad.

Palestinian female
political and detainees suffer harsh detention conditions
due to the Israeli prison administration's deliberate
medical negligence, ill-treatment, humiliating strip search,
and ban on family visits in a clear violation of basic human
rights and international law.

Background:Since
the occupation of Palestine in 1948, more than 800,000
Palestinians have been imprisoned. Different groups of the
Palestinian society are exposed to Israeli arrest campaigns,
including children, women and the elderly. For decades,
Palestinian female prisoners and detainees have been jailed
by Israel and exposed to physical and psychological torture,
in violation of humanitarian law. Mothers are disconnected
from their families and young female prisoners grow up
within jails. The result: a humanitarian crisis storming in
a large number of Palestinian families.

International law:The treatment of female
Palestinian prisoners is a violation of Articles 32, 49 and
76 of the Fourth Geneva Convention relative to the
Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Article 27 of
this convention asserts that women should enjoy special
protection, a right ignored by Israel.

Statistics:Since 1967, it is estimated that more
than 15,000 Palestinian women were arrested by Israel. No
accurate data is available for the period since the
establishment of Israel in 1948 up to 1967. According to
human rights organisations, the number of female political
prisoners and detainees was 110 at the beginning of 2011.
About 35 of them were released in a prisoner swap deal
conducted between Hamas and Israel. In February 2013, there
were twelve female political prisoners and detainees. The
Israeli authorities continue to arrest women on a regular
basis.

Causes of Arrests:Women are arrested and
jailed for different periods of time, ranging from a couple
of hours to several years. The main cause for arresting them
is to put pressure on their imprisoned partners or
relatives. In order to obtain confessions from prisoners,
the male prisoners are being threatened that their
imprisoned partner or relative will be harmed.

The
majority of male Palestinian political prisoners and
detainees are accused of ‘resisting’ Israel’s
occupation or supporting ‘resistance’.Often, the
political prisoners and detainees are public figures
including political personalities, intellectuals and members
of religious groups.

Intimidation and Torture:In
order to obtain information, that in many cases does not
exist, physical and psychological torture is exerted by
Israeli prison authorities. Furthermore, religious freedom
is often restricted, exemplified by the confiscation of the
Holy book of the Qur’an and other religious books.
Examples of violent torture are beating, prolonged
handcuffing and plucking locks of hair. Given their gender,
female prisoners are extremely vulnerable to sexual
harassment. Some female prisoners were stripped searched and
obliged to get naked and to set in squat position for a long
period of
time.

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